by Jami Alden
"Really, you don't have to stop, it just might take me a few minutes to get used to..."
Her voice trailed off and he felt a grin tug at his lips at the sight of the blush warming her cheeks. "At the rate I was going, I don't think I would have lasted even a few minutes." He kissed her again, slid a hand down to cup her breast. He flicked his thumb across a hard nipple, savoring the little sound of pleasure bubbling up from her throat. That was more like it.
"I don't know about you, but I think this works out better when everyone's having a good time."
Ignoring his cock, which was protesting fiercely its removal from possibly the hottest, tightest pussy it had ever had the pleasure to visit, Dylan slid his lips down the long pale column of her neck.
He bent his head and sucked a nipple into his mouth, felt his cock harden another inch at the feel of the hard little bud pressing eagerly against his tongue.
She had perfect tits. Not too big but high and full and the perfect size to fit into his hand. And sensitive, he discovered as she whimpered and shifted against him. Her hips rocked against him and he could feel the hot, wet press of her sex against his hip.
Every cell in his body urged him to thrust himself back inside of her, but he wasn't finished making up for his earlier clumsiness, not by a long shot.
Shifting lower, he traced his tongue along the undercurves of her breasts, down the flat plane of her stomach. Positioning himself between her thighs, he hooked her knees over his shoulders and pressed a hot, open mouth kiss to the inside of her leg.
###
Sadie felt like her heart was going to pound out of her chest as she took in the sight of Dylan's head between her legs, his dark hair a sharp contrast to the paleness of her thighs. Then her head fell back against the pillow as he parted her with his thumbs.
The first touch of his tongue had her arching her hips off the bed as waves of pure pleasure sizzled through her body. He took her with long, slow strokes of his tongue against her clit, circling, flicking, until soon every sinew in her body was pulled tight with need.
Then lower, fucking her with his tongue, thrusting and tasting like she was the most delicious thing he'd ever had and he couldn't get enough.
The thought sent a fresh wave of heat through her, making her moan as her hands slid down to tangle in his hair. He sucked her clit between his lips, flicked her with his tongue.
He slid one, then two thick fingers inside her. She let out a sharp cry and dug her heels into his back as he thrust and twisted his fingers, filling her from every angle, brushing against nerve endings she never even knew she had.
"Dylan!" She called his name as her orgasm hit her, making her shake and shudder with such intensity she swore she saw stars.
It could have been seconds or hours later that she looked up to find him propped up on his elbow next to her, a self-satisfied glimmer lurking in his lazy smile.
Her mouth curled into an answering smile. She brought her hand to his cheek, savoring the slight scrape of his whiskers against her sensitized fingertips. "You were right."
He cocked an eyebrow. "That it's better when you're having as much fun as I am?"
"Well, that too. But I was thinking you weren't lying when you said you've improved a lot since Debbie. I was starting to wonder there for a minute," she couldn't help teasing.
"I was too," he said with a rough chuckle as he settled himself between her legs. "What do you say? Have I earned a chance to give it another go?"
She nodded, shivering a little at the feel of him, still rock hard and unsatisfied against her lower belly.
He took her hand in his and guided it between his legs. "You put me in," he said, his gaze locked on hers.
Sadie wrapped her hand firmly around his length, loving his gasp, the way his muscles tensed as she gripped him.
It was a heady feeling, knowing she was doing this to him, she was making his muscles jump, his hands shake a little bit as he ran them up and down her sides. She had made him so insane with lust he could barely control himself.
The thought sent a fresh wave of need coursing through her, stunning given she was still quivering in the wake of the most intense orgasm she'd ever had in her life. Suddenly, she felt like she'd go crazy if she didn't have his hot, pulsing length buried inside her.
Spreading her knees wider, she guided him to her sex. Aroused as she was, she couldn't help stiffening at the first press of him against her.
"I promise to take it easy this time," he murmured. One hand gently gripped her hip while the other came up to tangle in her hair. He kissed her mouth, cheeks, neck, as he slowly eased himself in, gently thrusting and withdrawing until she was squirming with the need to have him all the way inside.
But he ignored the thrusting of her hips, the way her hands slid down the smooth skin of his back to dig into the muscles of his ass to urge him deeper.
Finally, he was all they way in, and Sadie could feel her inner muscles rippling around him, drawing him in as he held himself still, deeper inside her than any man had ever gone.
Then he started to move, small, slow movements of his hips. Teasing her, torturing her as the slight friction electrified her already sensitized flesh.
But it wasn't enough. She shifted under him, trying to urge him on, wrapping her legs around his waist to pull him more firmly against her.
"God, you're so tight," he muttered, almost sounding like he was in pain. "So tight I feel like I'm going to come right now, just feeling your tight little pussy squeezing around me."
As though on cue, she felt herself clench around him, felt him jerk against her as an answering jolt of pleasure rippled through her.
He groaned and drew his hips back until he was nearly all the way out, sliding back in a long, slow stroke that had him buried so deep she could feel him against the base of her spine.
He started to move in earnest then, steady, firm strokes that quickly had her blood singing as her hips arched up to match his rhythm.
She'd never felt anything like this, so consumed, so taken. He was huge and hard, moving over her, in her. With every thrust, her nipples rasped against the coarse hair on his chest, sending bursts of electricity to her core. Her hands moved eagerly over the smooth skin of his back and shoulders, trying to take him all in at once.
"Sadie, Jesus, you drive me out of my fucking mind."
The words sent her spiraling like no romantic platitudes or odes to her beauty ever could. She clung to him as every thrust sent her closer and closer to the edge. She wanted to tell him that he drove her crazy too, that she'd never felt anything even approaching what she felt right now.
But when she opened her mouth all that came out was an almost desperate sounding moan. Pleasure burst over her and all she could do was wrap herself around him and cling as jolts of sensation coursed through her, every muscle tightening with need before going completely, utterly limp.
Through her daze, she was vaguely aware of Dylan, his thrusts growing sharper, quicker. His muscles stood out in sharp relief, the expression on his face almost one of pain.
Suddenly he froze, stiffening against her. Inside, she felt his cock swell impossibly bigger. He gave muffled shout, jerking and shuddering against her as he gripped her hips and held himself deep inside.
He collapsed, wrung out. She only had a moment to savor the heavy weight on top of her before he rolled to the side, his chest heaving like he'd just finished a marathon.
Sadie lay there next to him, feeling what could only be described as shellshocked. She'd had sex, good sex in her life.
But nothing like this. Nothing like this feeling like she'd just been rocked by a seven point five earthquake. Like everything had been rattled loose inside her and would never quite fit back together right.
Stop it, she scolded herself. It's just sex. It doesn't have to be that big of a deal.
And okay, so it was sex with someone she'd been crushing on since she was thirteen. It still didn't have to mean anything more to her th
an it did to him.
And judging from the soft snores next to her, Dylan wasn't wasting any time worrying about the significance—or lack thereof—of what they'd just done.
Chapter 10
Goddamn Sadie Thornton.
The thought echoed through Dylan's brain all the next day, as he spent hour after tedious hour in the hay meadows, mowing the last of the crop while Pete worked the baler on the alfalfa Dylan had already cut.
It was hard enough to fathom that awkward, gawky, Sadie Thornton had grown into the kind of beauty that would make any straight man on the planet pause and take a long, lingering look.
But that one day he would have the kind of sex with Sadie that would blow the top of his head off, leave him turned inside out and itching for more like a goddamn smack addict?
Unfuckingbelievable.
But here he was, tortured by memories of the feel of her, under him, against him, surrounding him, until his cock was straining against the fly of his jeans and so hard he could have used it to steer the heavy machinery he was currently operating.
It wasn't like she was even overtly sexy—she was a little shy, unsure of herself.
But that was part of the appeal, he admitted. That feeling of easing her into her body, coaxing her into pleasure after the near disastrous start that made him cringe every time he thought about it.
He didn't know if it was a heretofore unknown urge to control women in bed, but goddamned if making Sadie come against his mouth last night wasn't almost as satisfying as when he'd finally come himself.
But sexual desire wasn't the only thing making him feel like he wanted to crawl out of his own skin. A tight, restless feeling had dogged him all morning, ever since he'd woken up to find himself asleep in his bed, the only evidence that Sadie had been there at all the lone condom wrapper lying on the floor next to his bed.
He didn't know why it bothered him so much, the thought of her slipping out without a word. There were plenty of times in the past when he would have given his right arm—okay, maybe just a toe or two—to spare himself the awkward aftermath, where he had to figure out the nicest way possible to essentially tell a woman, "Thanks for the fuck, now it's time for you to go."
Which was why he rarely made a habit of taking women back to his place.
But this was Sadie and Sadie was different, he thought as an uneasy feeling settled in his chest. Sadie wasn't just some random woman he'd met in a bar, or even one of the handful of women with whom he'd had what could loosely be called relationships.
Assuming sleeping with the same woman for more than a month between deployments could be called that.
Even with those women he'd never gotten much past the small talk, getting to know you phase. He'd never brought anyone home to meet his family, never been invited to meet theirs.
He'd never truly been part of their lives, and they hadn't been part of his.
But he'd known Sadie all his life, and she'd known him. And even if he could blow off all that shared history, there was the fact that he was working for her, she was depending on him to help dig the ranch out of its current financial mess. He was part of her life whether he wanted to be or not.
The kicker was, he wanted to be. Over the past couple of weeks, he'd confided in Sadie as much as he had anyone since he'd been injured. And as much as he'd been fighting the urge to get in her pants, he really liked her. She was smart, funny, loving...not to mention drop dead gorgeous.
All the things any guy would kill to have, providing he was in the right state of mind—not to mention the right stage of life—to appreciate it.
So even when his common sense had told him spending too much time with her wasn't the smartest choice for either of them, everything about her had made it impossible to stay away.
And even though his usual MO was to cut ties and make tracks before anything got too deep, he didn't like the idea of doing that to her.
Of leaving town in a couple of weeks and not looking back. Despite her boldness last night, he knew Sadie wasn't the type to take it in stride.
Problem was, she'd lit out in the middle of the night and was locked up in her office when he went over to the big house this morning under the guise of getting coffee.
Figuring if she'd wanted to talk, she would have emerged when she heard him tromping through the halls, he'd left her undisturbed.
But it left him with an unfamiliar, unsettled feeling that he needed to see her, talk to her, to make sure everything was okay with her, with them after what happened last night.
He finally got his chance later that evening when he caught her in the barn feeding the horses before dinner.
"Hey," he said as she was throwing a load of hay over one of the stall doors.
Her shoulders stiffened a little, but when she turned she had a bright—too bright—smile pasted across her face.
He stepped closer, and even in the dim light he could read the uncertainty in her eyes, feel her own unease.
"I was just finishing up in here," she said, brushing her hands against the legs of her jeans. "I better get inside and wash up in time for supper."
He caught her arm as she tried to brush past him. "You snuck out on me last night." He'd meant it as a joke, but somehow it came out more like an accusation. As though it had a will of it's own, his thumb started drawing lazy circles along the silky skin of her inner forearm.
"Yeah, uh," her cheeks warmed with color. "I figured, you were asleep so... And I wasn't sure you wanted me to stay over..." her voice trailed off.
She gently pulled her arm from his grasp and took a sharp inhale. She squared her shoulders as though bracing herself, then looked him squarely in the eye. "I'm not exactly well versed in one night stand etiquette. Assuming that's what that was."
He paused as he looked in her eyes, studying her expression. What he saw there surprised him. Or more accurately, what he didn't see. There was no expectation, no misplaced hope that he was going to tell her that it was in fact the start to some new chapter in their relationship.
There wasn't the resentment he so often saw when a woman realized that no matter how great the sex might have been, it wasn't special enough for him to forsake all others and go riding off into the sunset with her.
All he saw on Sadie's face was a wry smile and a conspiratorial look in her eyes.
Still, his gut told him that despite her protests that she wasn't looking for a commitment, Sadie didn't feel as casual about this as she was letting on. The fact that she'd avoided him all morning was a tell.
And then there was that crush on him she'd nursed back in high school, flashes of which he'd seen over the past few weeks. Maybe he was giving himself too much credit, putting too much weight on something she might have grown out of.
It should have been enough to give him pause. It should have been enough to remind him that if he had an ounce of decency he'd tell her yes. That last night was fun but that was that. It would be better in the long run to nip this in the bud. If they continued, it would only make it harder for her when it came time for him to leave.
He should let it go now, suffer through the awkwardness that would no doubt linger between them, take the hit to their friendship in order to keep her from getting more hurt.
But then he looked at her full, pink mouth, smiling that smile. Thought about how good it felt and tasted under his. Thought about how good her silky, naked skin had felt sliding against his.
Thought about how he could spend every night for the next two weeks indulging in all of it.
And admitted to himself he was way too goddamn selfish to stop at only one night.
He stepped closer, close enough that he could see her delicate nostrils flare, feel her breasts brush against his chest at her sharp intake of breath.
He reached down and took her hand, entwining his fingers with hers. "Thing is, a one night stand implies it only happens one time."
He stepped even closer, slid his other hand around her hip to pull her against him
so she could feel the full effect the memories of last night had on him. "I don't know about you," he whispered, bending his head so his lips nearly brushed hers, "but as far as I'm concerned one night wasn't nearly enough."
He pressed his mouth to hers, groaning when her lips eagerly parted for the slide of his tongue. At the first taste he was ready to push her up against a wall, tear off her jeans and get himself so deep inside her he couldn't remember his own name.
The soft whicker of a horse and the sound of Pete's diesel dually was enough—barely—to remind him they were in the barn where anyone could walk in at any time.
Not to mention he was covered in a day's worth of sweat, dust, and hay seeds and probably smelled like the inside of a gym locker.
Though Sadie didn't seem to mind, if the way she was grinding her pelvis against the bulge in his pants and sucking his tongue into her mouth was any indication.
He gave her one last long, lingering kiss before he forced himself to lift his head. "What do you say, Sadie?" he couldn't resist flicking her earlobe with his tongue. "What do you say we have a little fun?"
###
"Have you managed to straighten everything out with the banks yet?"
Sadie forced herself to focus on her father's question booming from the head of the table, nearly impossible with Dylan's hand resting high on her thigh underneath the table. "Uh, not quite," she managed to get out. "Molly is still going over all of the information I sent her. I'm going to meet with her later this week."
"Well the sooner we get to the bottom of it the better."
"I know something I'd like to get to the bottom of," Dylan murmured so only she could hear, and slid his hand until his fingers were skimming her inner thigh.
Sadie reached under the table and gave his leg a pinch, hiding her smile behind a sip of water.
